Postpartum Anxiety: Recognizing the Signs and Seeking Help

Motherhood is like a reverence adored and welcomed by everyone.

However, it’s still can be intimidating and spooky for many who go through this divine life-changing process.

One time, you are overwhelmed and then the next moment you start panicking about your own recovery. These rapid emotional changes from happiness and affection to sadness and anguish make you annoyed and usually results in an emotional outburst.

You end up cursing yourself, which often leads to different conclusions, one of them being postpartum depression.

However, it might be a possibility that you are actually dealing with Postpartum Anxiety.

It is a fact that more than 60% of women after delivery go through this condition while only less than 20% of them have postpartum depression issues.

I know you are now totally confused.

Don’t worry!!

Let’s understand the difference while sharing some real-life experiences of women who also have dealt with postpartum anxiety.

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Vanessa Lachey

She is a well-known American TV personality who shared her woes globally through an online platform via Inside Story: My Experience with Baby Blues.

She quoted an incident that there was a time when she started having thoughts that she was just a milk-making machine. For her, it was like she had lost all her interest in motherhood rather she was irked because of these transformations in her life.

Though she felt guilty while sharing these thoughts, at the same time she wanted to help new moms who were dealing with similar feelings.

She emphasized that it is perfectly fine to deal with such complications in the beginning. But, you need to get yourself together and talk to a family member or a professional to get out of this phase quickly.

With the help of her story, we got some idea about postpartum anxiety. However, let’s research a bit more.

Postpartum anxiety shows symptoms similar to depression, however, these symptoms can start very early even during pregnancy and can last maximum for a year after delivery.

Ann Smith, President of the Postpartum Support International mentions that around 30 percent of postpartum cases can start very early during pregnancy.

During this phase, there is an enormous shift in the hormonal levels which is also a primary reason for a sudden change in emotions and feelings.

During this period, women can feel different kinds of transitions in their routines like:

Changes in the eating pattern
Not sleeping properly
Hot Flashes
Heartbeats rapidly
Not able to sit properly, or focus on any task
Sudden outbursts

We already saw some of these symptoms in Vanessa Lachey’s case, let’s now see how Arielle Charnas went through her period of postpartum anxiety.

Arielle Charnas

She is one of the most beloved fashion bloggers, with more than 1 million Instagram followers on her brand ‘Something Navy’.

However, to be absolutely real to her followers, lately some of her posts have been about her experiences with postpartum anxiety.

She revealed that she had to deal with some of the weird symptoms like nervousness, rapid heartbeats, and sometimes even fear of dying. But, she advocated talking to a professional for treatment of postpartum anxiety disorder, or otherwise, this could provoke panic attacks.

If you too are worrying unreasonably or are getting frightened about not being capable of taking care of your baby, don’t hesitate to talk to your partner or your family.

If they can deal with this condition, you too are capable of doing the same.

You can also consult our experienced anxiety specialist in Santa Ana and look for different consultation and treatment options such as counseling, or cognitive behavioral therapy.